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The Plant "Brain" 3: Defense, Avoiding Predators, Attracting Insects, Timed Gene Synthesis

Previous posts, examined possible plant cognitive functions with the Dodder’s parasitism and...

Human Brain and Mind 3: the Limits of the Senses, Top Down Control of Perception

In a now-famous experiment, people are told to carefully look for and count certain details of...

The Plant “Brain” 2: Communication among Plants and with Other Species

Plants, while not generally thought of as being intelligent, do exhibit problem solving, planning...

The Plant “Brain”: The Dodder Attacks

Most of the time, we do not think of plants as having the ability to plan, move, and attack. Certain...

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Jon Lieff MDRSS Feed of this column.

Dr. Jon Lieff graduated from Yale College with a B.A. in mathematics, and Harvard Medical School with an M.D. He is a practicing psychiatrist, with specialties in geriatric psychiatry and neuropsychiatry... Read More »

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Human Brain and Mind 2: More Neuroplasticity

Human Brain and Mind 2: More Neuroplasticity

Mar 19 2012 | comment(s)

For many years, it was thought that new brain cells could not develop in adulthood and that the connections between nerves were fairly static after childhood.
The Microbe “Brain” – Sensory, Neuronal, Attributes of Microbes

The Microbe “Brain” – Sensory, Neuronal, Attributes of Microbes

Mar 16 2012 | comment(s)

The brain receives a variety of sensory information, then synthesizes and analyzes the data by sending it into various centers and loops.  It then determines a course of action and communicates with others.

The microbe seems to do much of this without neurons and a brain.  Individual microbes solve complex problems, such as locating food, evading predators, and communicating for complex group activity.   Microbes carry out these functions using at least six capacities that we have traditionally attributed only to brains:

What is the Mind? 5 Theoretical Possibilities

What is the Mind? 5 Theoretical Possibilities

Mar 15 2012 | comment(s)

Mind is usually considered that part of a person that allows a unified conscious awareness of the world, our bodies, and experiences, including thinking and feeling.

Since mind seems to depend upon molecular activity in cells and in brain circuits, scientists generally assume that mind is created by, or emerges from the cells and the circuits of the brain.

Another view is that the mind uses or interacts with cells and brain circuits like a driver would use a vehicle

Since no one has been able to explain what a subjective experience is, and how it relates to the brain, all theories about the nature of the mind are speculative.

Human Brain And Mind

Human Brain And Mind

Mar 14 2012 | comment(s)

The most logical and intuitive place to seek the mind is in the human brain. Neuroscience can observe the workings of perception, memory, thinking, and emotions by using imaging devices to see which sections of the brain light up while it’s performing different functions. 

Do Imaging Devices tell us about Subjective Experience?

We see chemical and electric signals, in oscillating and bursting patterns, sending communications throughout the brain as study subjects perform mental functions. But, there has been no way to find out what subjective experience is, other than studying how it seems to correlate with these brain images and electrical signals.

Social Microbes

Social Microbes

Mar 13 2012 | comment(s)

In the excellent book, “The Social Amoebae,” John Tyler Bonner, an emeritus professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, describes many social abilities of amoebas including communication, group activity, and individual and group decision making.  Do these raise the question of cognition in amoeba?
Complex Machinery in the Neuron, Vesicle Budding and Fusion, Transcription, and More

Complex Machinery in the Neuron, Vesicle Budding and Fusion, Transcription, and More

Mar 12 2012 | comment(s)

The neuron performs an incredible job in maintaining the mechanics of the cell while still being responsible for the transmission of mental function.  Its responsibilities include: building structures to maintain its long axon, building and rebuilding the large number of input receptors on its dendrites, maintaining the packets of neurotransmitter molecules as they travel down the axon, opening and closing the cell membrane to build dendrites, expelling signaling molecules in a process called budding, and retracting the packets of those signal molecules.